1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a connector which is used for, e.g., an eco-friendly car such as a hybrid car and an electric car, in particular, to a connector which may be potentially employed for a connection of a power harness used for transmitting a large amount of power.
2. Description of the Related Art
A power harness has made significant progress in recent years and is used for connecting between devices such as between a motor and an inverter or between an inverter and a battery in, e.g., a hybrid car or an electric car for transmitting a large amount of power, and a connector in a two-divided structure composed of e.g., a male connector portion provided with a male terminal as well as a first terminal housing for housing the male terminal and a female connector portion provided with a female terminal connected to the male terminal as well as a second terminal housing for housing the female terminal is provided to one end of the power harness (see, e.g., JP-A-2009-070754).
In recent years, all components in such an eco-friendly car have been lightened in weight in order to improve energy saving performance, and size reduction is desired as one of effective means of reducing weight.
A technique of Japanese patent No. 4037199 is an example of a known technique.
The technique described in Japanese patent No. 4037199 is an electric connection structure for vehicle in which connecting terminals of plural phases of a conductive member led from a vehicle driving motor are connected to connecting terminals of plural phases of a power line cable led from an inverter for driving the motor, a connecting terminal of each phase of the conductive member overlaps a corresponding connecting terminal of each phase of the power line cable, an insulating member is arranged on a surface opposite to an overlapping surface of the connecting terminals, and the overlapped terminals of each phase are tightened and fixed to the insulating member in an overlapping direction by a single bolt provided at a position to penetrate therethrough.
In other words, the technique of Japanese patent No. 4037199 is a connection structure in which plural connecting terminals and insulating members compose a laminated structure and the connecting terminals are fixed and electrically connected all together at contact points by tightening in an overlapping direction (or a lamination direction) using a single bolt while plural contact points between the connecting terminals as an overlapping surface thereof are sandwiched, and this kind of configuration is more effective than the technique of JP-A-2009-070754 in that downsizing is easy.